More for rulers than peo­ple: JVP

JVP on Ap­pro­pri­a­tion Bill

The Janatha Vimuk­thi Per­a­muna (JVP) said ON Tues­day that the Ap­pro­pri­a­tion Bill pre­sented in Par­lia­ment on Mon­day was the first Ap­pro­pri­a­tion Bill pre­sented with the largest ex­pen­di­ture and deficit in Sri Lankan his­tory.

It also ac­cused that the Bill al­lo­cated more money for the well­be­ing of rulers than the needs of the peo­ple.

The JVP leader Anura Ku­mara Dissanayake told a news con­fer­ence that the Ap­pro­pri­a­tion Bill had fo­cused on the well be­ing of the rulers than the needs of the peo­ple, where the al­lo­ca­tion of money for the Pres­i­dent and the Prime Min­is­ter had in­creased, while the al­lo­ca­tion of Trans­port and Civil Avi­a­tion Min­istry had been re­duced by Rs. 9,162 mil­lion.

“Al­lo­ca­tion to the Pres­i­dent has in­creased by Rs. 3,527 mil­lion from Rs. 6,459 mil­lion in 2017 to Rs. 9,983 mil­lion in 2018. Al­lo­ca­tion for the Prime Min­is­ter has in­creased by Rs. 517 mil­lion. Money al­lo­cated for the Civil Avi­a­tion Min­istry is re­duced from Rs. 5,100 mil­lion in 2017 to Rs. 4,200 mil­lion in 2018. This Ap­pro­pri­a­tion Bill has the largest ex­pen­di­ture in Sri Lankan his­tory and it also has the largest deficit,” he said.

He said the Gov­ern­ment would have to in­crease the limit of loans by Rs. 1,800 mil­lion to bridge the deficit.

Re­fer­ring to the Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment elec­tions, he said the JVP, as a po­lit­i­cal party had acted to force the Gov­ern­ment to set the back­ground needed to hold the LG polls by com­plet­ing the de­lim­i­ta­tion process, chang­ing the elec­toral sys­tem, pass­ing the Mu­nic­i­pal Coun­cil, Ur­ban Coun­cil and Pradeshiya Sabha Bills in Par­lia­ment with­out de­lays.

He said the JVP had forced the Gov­ern­ment to set the scene for the LG polls when the Joint Op­po­si­tion was do­ing dra­mas for po­lit­i­cal sur­vival. He said the JVP was pre­par­ing the ini­tial re­quire­ments for the LG polls set to be held at the end of Jan­uary 2018. When asked about the Joint Op­po­si­tion’s protest against the draft Bill of the Con­sti­tu­tion, he said a fi­nal draft had not been pre­pared and that it was only a con­cept.

Bill had fo­cused on the well be­ing of the rulers than the needs of the peo­ple, where the al­lo­ca­tion of money for the Pres­i­dent and the Prime Min­is­ter...